A new video produced by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), “Creating a Star on Earth,” highlights PPPL’s research into magnetic fusion as a clean and abundant source of energy for generating electricity.

The video got some great promotion when it was tweeted from The White House and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy after it was released on March 5.

The DOE has posted the video on its own website and is promoting the work on social media, where the video can reach 166,000 followers on Twitter, 114,000 followers on Google and 35,000 “likes” on Facebook. (click on the image above to view the video)

The video explains how the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade (NSTX-U) will create and contain ionized plasma gas that is far hotter than the 15-million-degree Celsius core of the sun and fuels fusion reactions.

“At the Energy Department’s Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, scientists are trying to accomplish what was once considered the realm of science fiction: creating a star on earth,” the introduction states.

DOE video producer Matty Greene and Ben Dotson, the DOE’s project coordinator for digital reform, produced the video for the DOE’s Space Week, which highlights space-related stories at national laboratories. The video packs a lot of information into two minutes and 38 seconds. It features live-action images of the NSTX-U, the Lithium Tokamak Experiment (LTX), and the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX), together with interviews with PPPL Director Stewart Prager and researchers and engineers at the Lab.

Adam Cohen, PPPL’s Director of Operations, said he hopes everyone will watch the video and share it with family and friends. “I think they conveyed a very nice message about fusion and the Laboratory as the center of the magnetic fusion program,” he said. “Now we need to make it go viral!”